Senators meet with border czar Tom Homan as lawmakers search for way out of DHS shutdown

Washington- A group of senators met with border czar Tom Homan on Thursday as negotiators continue to seek a deal to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement and end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

More than a month after the funding cutoff began, the meeting marked a key development as progress appears to have stalled so far. Democrats and the White House have exchanged proposals in recent weeks, but the two sides have remained far apart.

“The first step is dialogue, and this is the very first time we’ve had that” in six weeks, said Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama. “I hope we see more in the days to come.”

She added that Thursday’s meeting was not a negotiation, but a conversation, and that there were “no guarantees of anything.”

“I think it was helpful,” she said.

As Democrats trade offers with the White House, Senate Republicans have publicly pushed for member-level discussions in recent weeks. Democrats argued they needed assurance that the administration was serious about negotiations, while expressing skepticism that talks with Senate Republicans would result in a breakthrough.

At the hearing, Democrats made clear there remained distance between their demands and what the White House had proposed, according to a Democratic aide.

“I’m glad the White House is talking with us, but they have a lot of work to do,” Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said in a statement. “My colleagues and I will not vote for a deal that does not include real reforms on arrest warrants, masks, training and our other demands.”

Meanwhile, pressure has increased to fund the many agencies overseen by DHS, including the TSA. Hundreds of TSA agents have resigned in recent weeks as workers have gone without pay while staffing issues have been created chaos at airports. Democrats tried to award funding to individual agencies, but Republicans blocked those attempts. Republicans in turn attempted to approve funds for all of DHS on a temporary basis, which Democrats also blocked.

The talks come as DHS leadership undergoes a change after the actions of federal law enforcement came under intense scrutiny following the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota in January. Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma should be confirmed in the coming days as the new DHS Secretary, replacing Kristi Noem. Homan was brought in to run operations in Minnesota as Noem’s leadership faced criticism from members of both parties.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the Senate’s top appropriators, were present at the meeting with Homan. Other appropriators, including Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, were also in attendance, as were Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, and Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire. King, Hassan and Shaheen participated in negotiations aimed at ending the longest government shutdown in history last fall.

As they left the meeting, a number of senators declined to comment on the private conversation. Hoeven told reporters “we’ve made some progress,” but Murray said the two sides remain “very far apart.”

The Senate is expected to leave town for a two-week recess late next week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters earlier in the day that the impasse “must be resolved by the end of next week.”

“I don’t see us taking a break if the government is still paralyzed,” he added.

Thune said before the meeting that this was a positive development, saying “we’ve been encouraging this for a while and are happy to see both sides sitting down.”

Homan said after the meeting that “we have to reopen the government.”